1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a signal meter for a television antenna and, more particularly, the invention relates to a signal meter, mounted in a wall plate, for use with an antenna receiving broadcast television signals.
2. Discussion of the Background
Television antennas are now being used to receive digital broadcast VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency) signals. Television antennas are found at fixed locations such as in residential housing and at temporary mobile locations such as occurs when a recreational vehicle (RV) moves around. In mobile use, a directional television antenna is usually mounted to the roof of the RV and when the RV stops at a new location, the directional television antenna must be oriented for optimum reception of broadcast digital television signals from local television stations. Conventional signal meters are available as an aid in proper orientation of the antenna by a user to receive a peak broadcast signal.
Such conventional signal meters are generally hand held and are temporarily connected to the antenna and sometimes to the television requiring the user to connect and disconnect cables. In an RV environment, the use of such hand-held signal meters is cumbersome with exposed cables and with the possibility that the signal meter may become misplaced or lost. A need exists for a signal meter built into a wall plate so that the signal meter is permanently located in a wall of the RV (or residential housing, etc.) and is convenient for use with all interconnecting cables hidden from view.
A television broadcast station's “radio frequency (RF) channel” may not be the same as the “viewing channel” on the television set. By way of example, in Burlington, Iowa, WQAD (an ABC affiliate) is known to viewers as Channel 8. With the mandate to convert to digital transmission, WQAD broadcasts its signal over RF channel 38 (614 to 620 MHz), but is assigned a virtual channel of 8.1. Newer TVs have built-in tuners that automatically scan (upon initial set-up) all broadcast digital RF frequencies and then map these detected broadcast RF channels into the virtual channels commonly used by the viewer. In the above example, the tuner detects RF channel 38, but then maps this as virtual channel 8 for use by the viewer who is familiar with the Channel 8 brand. This TV scan consumes time such as several minutes. Such long scan times are not practical when a directional antenna on the RV must be iteratively positioned to find TV signals. A need exists for a user, after parking an RV at a location, to ascertain available television programming quickly as the user iteratively orients the TV antenna to receive such local broadcast signals. The scan time for each iterative movement of the antenna should be less than 10 seconds and should provide the broadcast RF channel number and its signal strength. After the user properly aligns the antenna to receive a maximum signal strength for a desired channel(s), the user can then have the TV perform the much slower scan to tune the TV to the received broadcast signals and then map the detected broadcast channels to the virtual channels corresponding to the known viewing channel brands.